''Ligretto'' is a

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

for two to twelve players. The game in its current form was designed by Michael Michaels and published in 1988 by the German company Rosengarten Spiele. Since 2000 the game has been published by

Schmidt-Spiele Schmidt Spiele is a German games publisher for a wide variety of games, especially German-style board games. Founder Josef Friedrich Schmidt developed Mensch ärgere dich nicht in 1907/1908, based on antique forerunners. Five years later his new p ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. A blue version of the game has been published by Playroom Entertainment in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and other

English-speaking countries The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...

since 2009. The objective of the game is to get rid of your cards faster than the other players by discarding them in the middle of the table. The game is based on and is similar to ''

Dutch Blitz Dutch Blitz is a fast-paced, family oriented, action card game played with a specially printed deck. The game was created circa 1937 by Werner Ernst George Muller (born 24 August 1912), a German immigrant from Hamburg, Germany, who settled in B ...

''. Both card games use specially printed cards, but feature gameplay almost identical to ''

Nerts Nerts (US), or Racing Demon (UK), is a fast-paced multiplayer card game involving multiple decks of playing cards. It is often described as a competitive form of Patience or Solitaire. In the game, players or teams race to get rid of the cards in ...

'', which is played with standard playing cards, and is in turn based on Canfield, a variant of the classic Klondike Solitaire.

History

Ligretto was first released in 1988 by the German company Rosengarten Spiele. It may have been inspired by Rasender Teufel, invented in 1927 in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, which had an almost identical set of rules and play style. It is also inspired by

, which was invented to teach children about colors and numbers.
Good Time Holding
bought the rights for the game in 1999, and since 2000 it has been published by the subsidiary

Schmidt Spiele Schmidt Spiele is a German games publisher for a wide variety of games, especially German-style board games. Founder Josef Friedrich Schmidt developed Mensch ärgere dich nicht in 1907/1908, based on antique forerunners. Five years later his new ...

. Since its release, it has sold more than 4 million copies.

Gameplay

The game employs a unique deck of 160 cards. Each card features a face of red, green, yellow, or blue colour, and is numbered from 1 to 10. Every player receives 40 cards (ten of each colour), which possess a distinctive design on the reverse side, exclusive to that player.

Setup

Each player deals out their own deck by

shuffling Shuffling is a technique used to randomize a deck of playing cards, introducing an element of chance into card games. Various shuffling methods exist, each with its own characteristics and potential for manipulation. One of the simplest shuf ...

their cards and placing ten cards face up on the table to form a "stack." The cards on the stack are face-up, with the numbers visible to the players. Additionally, three cards (four cards in a three-player game, five cards in a two-player game) are displayed face up next to this stack; these constitute the "row", whose numbers are also visible to players. The remaining cards are held in each player's hand.

Play

The game initiates when a player exclaims "Ligretto!" Then, players simultaneously discard cards onto the central table area. A legal card is any that is the next card in numerical order and in the same colour as the one currently in any pile, or a '1' card. New piles can only be initiated when a player acquires and plays a '1' card. A '1' card must be played from either the player's row or their hand. A pile is complete when the '10' card is played on top, after which no cards can be played on that pile. If a player is unable to play any card, they must deal three cards from their hand and reveal only the top-most card. They must continue this until the revealed card can be played. When one of the three cards from the Row is played, the void left behind is occupied by the top card from the Stack. If no player can play another card, all participants reshuffle their hand, and a player proclaims "Ligretto!" to recommence the game. The game completes when a player discards all cards from their stack pile and declares "Ligretto stop!"

Scoring

At the end of each round, all cards on the table are flipped over, returned to the players and tallied. Each player gets one point for each card they played to the middle of the table, ignoring the number on the cards. Two points are then subtracted for each card remaining on their stack. Once the scores have been calculated, each player shuffles their set of 40 cards to start a new round. The player who declares "Ligretto stop" first is not necessarily the player who acquires the highest number of points. The game continues until a player reaches a score of 99 points and wins. If more than one player scores 99 points in a round, the player with the highest points wins.

Game packs

''Ligretto'' comes in red, green, and blue packs. Each pack, containing cards for four players, has a different set of markings on the card backs. Having all three packs allows up to 12 players to play at a time.

References

{{Reflist
Game Description
and Online version at brettspielwelt.de. Accessed May 2007
Ligretto
at the Austrian toy museum. Accessed May 2007

External links

Official ''Playroom Entertainment'' websiteLigretto
at Schmidt publishers website. Accessed May 2007
Ligetto!
Game in progress on YouTube Card games introduced in 1988 Dedicated deck card games Shedding-type card games Card games for children